Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Chicken and Pasta Bake Recipe

We use raw chicken and cook it before mixing it with the other ingredients. If you would prefer to purchase cooked chicken, or if you have leftover cooked chicken, we recommend that you use 250 grams chicken. Since cooked chicken won't need to be pan-fried, you can omit two teaspoons of the oil from the recipe.

Cook pasta in a large (at least 2.75 litre capacity) saucepan of salted boiling water according to package directions or until just tender. Drain pasta and set aside. Rinse saucepan and set aside until required for sauce.

Heat one teaspoon of the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned (about seven minutes). Transfer onion and bacon mixture to a small bowl.Return pan to medium-high heat. Add remaining two teaspoons of oil to the pan and add chicken. Fry, stirring occasionally, until chicken is lightly browned and cooked through (about six minutes).

In the saucepan used to boil the pasta, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and stir constantly. Once the mixture bubbles, continue cooking and stirring for about 40 seconds.Then add the chicken stock and milk. Increase heat to medium-high. Don't worry about any lumps in the mixture, they should disappear while stirring (if not, they can be strained out once you have finished cooking the sauce). Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. At this point, if you tilt the saucepan and use the spoon to push some of the sauce aside, you should be able to see the sauce bubbling on the base of the saucepan. Remove from heat and add 40g tasty cheese, salt and pepper to the saucepan.Stir to combine.

Pour mixture into a 2.25 litre (9 cup) capacity ovenproof dish.Sprinkle with combined mozzarella and tasty cheese.Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes, until hot in the centre and golden brown.Allow to stand for five minutes before serving.

I made this for dinner tonight - simply delicious and very filling. Just a tip - to make this, or any other cheese or white sauce, use a balloon whisk to stir when heating. This will ensure a smooth consistency with no lumps.Thanks for another great recipe.

Deseeded fresh tomato might make the sauce a bit watery. If we were using fresh tomato, we would probably reduce the amount of chicken stock or milk by a couple of tablespoons. You could try using roasted capsicum in place of the semi-dried tomato.

Hi Anonymous

You could omit the bacon and increase the weight of chicken to 410 grams.

Hi Amanda and Debbie,I omitted the bacon but forgot to increase the chicken...it was still very delicious. my teenage children suggested i try maybe brocoli and carrots instead of mushies...am unsure how this will would go with the sauce.My son doesn't like mushies so picked at it. They both loved the flavour of this dish. so thanks.

Thank you so much for this great recipe. My husband and my 4 and 3 year old sons loved it so much. made this with roasted capsicum instead of semi dried tomatoes and without bacon(we don't eat bacon),really tasty.

To the person who asked about using broccoli and carrot in place of the mushrooms: We suggest that you cook the carrot and partially cook the broccoli before adding them to the sauce with the other ingredients.

Oh so yummy , use your blog allll the time. Didnt put mushrooms in cause of a disagreeable 4 year old. But we all loved it easy recipe with outstanding results.I'm yet to find a bad comment on any recipe..Sam

Thanks for a fantastic recipe. Made this last night huge success. Used chargrilled capsicum instead of tomato and added breadcrumbs (2 slices stale bread)on top of the cheese for a lovely crunchy topping. Will definetly be making this again. Thanks gals!

Hi.I just found your site and am disappointed that I can't copy and paste a recipe for potato pancakes.I'm on a fixed income and for me to print the whole page would be a waste of ink that I can't buy all the time.I did write the recipe out however but with all these great recipes you have here I just can't do it....thank you.

I found this site only today and I must say it's one of the best foodblogs so far!!! Really interesting recipes and easy to follow instructions!!! Keep on the good job! Definitely trying something today!

Thanks girls, the recipe is easy to follow and the results are simply divine! I made it with my bf at a friend's place for a get together dinner and everyone loved it. Thank you for the recipe and keep up the good work!

I made this for dinner the other night and everyone raved about it. I thought the flavours were lovely and I really liked the addition of the chicken stock to the white sauce. Thanks for yet another great recipe!

Chicken & Pasta Bake recipe: We had friends over the other night and wanted something filling yet easy to make; I'm the worst cook ever. This recipe was easy to follow and the results were great. (I added too much pasta but still tasted great). It is so much better to make the sauce than to buy a pasta bake sauce. Thanks for the recipe, would recommend this as a staple!

Absolutely delicious! If you haven't tried it yet, you haven't lived! Fantastic flavours. I have fussy eaters but with this dish there were no complaints whatsoever. I've written the recipe in our family cookbook for future indulgence!

This is fantastic. I've now made it 3 times, and find it works best with a leek instead of an onion, and add add spring onions just before adding the cheese topping. Omit the tomatoes, and add extra cheese to the sauce. Marvellous.

Hey Girls what a fantastic bake, I have made this twice with a little twist of my own, I poach the chicken in the stock rather than frying it, also I use swiss brown mushies for that nutty flavour and finally I use chilli Pancetta instead of bacon for a bit of zing !p.s. great recipes keep them coming.

I made this tonight but I used corn, asparagus, bacon, onion, zucchini, garlic and chicken (and of course pasta). I cooked the onion and bacon together, the chicken and garlic part cooked and then added the zucchini until both cooked, then added the tin of corn and asparagus when mixing it together. I used a whisk to make the sauce and there were no lumps. It came out absolutely beautiful! I'll be making this again!

Just made this, very easy and yummy. Added grated zucchini, finley chopped celery and grated carrot to bacon and onion mixture as need to hide veggies in things for my toddler. Omitted mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes as my kids and hubby don't eat them. Added quartered cherry tomatoes instead. Didn't have enough cheese so used cream that I had in fridge instead of milk and just sprinkled cheese over top.

I only discovered your blog this week after years ogling foodie blog's and I feel like I've struck gold! So far I've made your vegetable slice, lemon coconut cake and now this pasta bake is in the oven for dinner. It tasted so good at the sauce stage and can't wait to sit down to eat. I'm so looking forward to trying more dishes. Really, really great site and recipes, keep up the great work.

I made this last night and it was lovely. I have a mushroom phobic son so cut the mushrooms into large pieces so he could navigate around them (and the rest of us could claim his), he also isn't too keen on tomatoes but wolfed down the sundried tomatoes. I will certainly cook this again, but I'm not going to make it into a pasta bake, I reckon it tasted the nicest before putting it into the casserole with the cheese on top. Thank you for a delicious dinner meal.

Brilliant recipe, and easy to follow for a beginner cook like me, thank you! I added about a tablespoon of chili flakes to give it a bit of zing (a bit much, but i do like my chili!)and some sliced zucchini and it turned out great. i only had stock cubes (perish the thought!) but they seemed to work out fine!Thanks again!!